NOTE: I updated this script on June 2 so that it now pulls out all (?) of the URLs embedded in the selected spams. The code listed below is updated, but not my comment about it not doing what I just updated it to do. So to speak. (The version without the wordwrap issues has also been updated. But what you really want is this pure text version, suitable for copying and pasting.)

I just received 200 comment spams. They each listed a different URL and came from a different IP address,which means the invaluable MT-Blacklist (thank you, Jay Allen) has to be told to delete each one, one at a time.

Instead, I cobbled together an Outlook script — yes, I use OL on my desktop machine, although I’ve been happy with Thunderbird on my laptop — that looks through the messages you have highlighted in your inbox and builds a list of the URLs that people listed in the URL field of the comment. You then paste these into the text box in MT-Blacklist’s “Add” tab. (It also shows a list of the IP addresses, although I don’t know why I bothered.)

Here are just some of the caveats you need to take very seriously: I am fumbling around in the dark when it comes to VBA for Outlook. And, there’s almost no (= NO) error checking in this little program, so you could end up banning your mother; you must carefully inspect each of the URLs to make sure you really want to delete the comment that contains it. Further, I don’t really understand how MT-Blacklist works. And there are probably some bad line wraps in the code below which will totally break it. Finally, this does NOT find any of the URLs in the body of the message because that’s too hard. Well, finding the beginning of the urls isn’t hard, but figuring out when they end is.

So with that warning (WARNING: read the warning!), here’s the script:

Sub FindURLStoBAN()

‘ walks through selected

‘files to find bad urls

Dim objApp As Application

Dim objSelection As Selection

Dim objItem As Object

Dim ipstr As String

Dim urlstr As String

Dim ips As String

Dim  us As String

Set objApp = CreateObject(“Outlook.Application”)

‘ get the selected msgs
Set objSel = objApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection
x = 0

For Each objItem In objSel

If objItem.Class = 43 Then ‘ 43=mailitem

msgtxt = objItem.Body ‘ get msg text

‘ Is this msg from mt-blacklist?

p = InStr(msgtxt, “MT-Blacklist”)

If p > 0 Then ‘ yes it is

‘ get the ip to ban

p1 = InStr(msgtxt, “IP Address:”)

p1 = p1 + 12

p2 = InStr(p1, msgtxt, vbCr)

ips = Mid(msgtxt, p1, p2 – p1)

ipstr = ipstr & vbCr & vbLf & ips

‘ get the url listed for the name

p1 = InStr(msgtxt, “URL: “) + 5

p2 = InStr(p1, msgtxt, vbCr)

us = Mid(msgtxt, p1, p2 – p1)

urlstr = urlstr & vbCr & vbLf & us
‘ —-‘Get urls in the text

udone = False: prevp = 1

‘u ppercase it because I’m lazy

msgtxt = UCase(msgtxt)

While Not udone

u = “”

‘ get next a href

p1 = InStr(prevp, msgtxt, “<A HREF=”)

‘ get end of href

p3 = InStr(p1 + 1, msgtxt, “”>”)

‘ find end of href

If p1 > 0 And p3 > 0 Then

‘ get /a

p2 = InStr(p1 + 1, msgtxt, “</A”>”)

‘ if it has an end /a

If p2 > 0 Then

‘ extract the string

u = Mid(msgtxt, p1 + 9, (p3 – (p1 + 11)))

‘ note where it ended for next loop

prevp = p2

‘ is it already in the string?

If InStr(1, urlstr, u) = 0 Then

urlstr = urlstr & vbCr & vbLf & u

End If

End If

End If

‘ are we out of links?

if p1 = 0 Then udone = True

Wend
End If ‘ if p > 0 msg from mtblacklist

x = x + 1
End If
Next
‘ Fill the two textboxes
mtblacklistfrm.iptxt.Text = ipstr

mtblacklistfrm.urltxt.Text = urlstr

mtblacklistfrm.Show

Set objItem = Nothing
End Sub 

(Here‘s a version that shouldn’t have word-wrap problems.)

To make this work, you have to create a form called mtblacklistfrm and stick into it a text box that you name iptxt and one that you name urltxt. Set the text boxes’ scroll bars to on and make sure that they’re set to multiline.

If you don’t know how to stick a script like this into OL, then you shouldn’t. If you do, then you could have done this better yourself.

Warning: Do not trust this script! It undoubtedly is embarrassingly wrong and dangerous. Have pity on me. I’m a humanities major.

Thank you.

Categories: Uncategorized dw